250 Delhi cops recruited on fake driving licences

NEW DELHI: Another Commonwealth Games-related scam has been unearthed, this time in the Delhi Police. It has emerged that as many as 250 out of 676 constables recruited as drivers before the Games had submitted fake driving licences to get the job.

The drivers were recruited to escort athletes to the Games venues and be part of other mobile security apparatus being put in place for the event. Sources confirmed that the appointment of those who had used fake papers has been cancelled and they may face arrest.

Three years after the recruitment, TOI has learnt that 250 constables had procured fake licences from different states - UP, Haryana, Manipur, J&K, Punjab and north-eastern states. Their documents were cleared, after which they underwent training and got the job.

Recently, a Crime Branch verification of all 676 licences revealed that more than a third of these were fake. Following this, Delhi Police has registered FIRs (TOI has copies) against five of these constables and a 'high-level' enquiry is being conducted into the scam. Highly placed sources said as many as 250 FIRs may eventually be filed.

The verification process also found that most of the licenses provided by constables had fake addresses. These constables were recruited at a pay band of Rs 5,200-20,200.

The five constables against whom FIRs have been lodged have been identified as Sanjeet Kumar, Deepak Deswal, Dalip Singh Jat, Lalit Kumar and Hari Om.

An advertisement to fill up 676 vacancies for the post of constables was published in newspapers and Employment News in February 2009. In response, thousands of applications were received from various states. A shortlist of desirable candidates was prepared,sources said.

"As per the rules, the candidates were required to have a valid driver's licence for driving heavy motor vehicles at the time of submission of the application form. After receiving the applications and documents from all shortlisted candidates, they were put through tests and the successful ones declared provisionally fit," said a source. All the applicants had submitted their documents by March 2009 and recruitment process was reportedly over by June-July of thesame year.

The recruitment was subject to "satisfactory verification of thedriving licence".

Like many others, constable Hari Om, a resident of Rewari (Haryana) and one of the five accused, was declared provisionally selected for the post (roll No. 811589).

"His licence issuing authority was Kashmir.A verification revealed that the licence had been issued in the name of one Nazir Ahmed Kaloo for motorcycles and light motor vehicles," said a cop.

Similarly, Dalip Singh Jat, a resident of Alwar (Rajasthan), was found to possess a licence from Jalandhar (Punjab ), valid till 2007.His licence was reportedly renewed by the licensing authority in Meerut (UP) but when contacted , the authority denied having issued it.

Lalit Kumar, a resident of Khajuri Khas (Delhi), submitted a driver's licence from Ghaziabad. But it emerged it had been issued from Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh) and was endorsed by the Bulandshahr authority to drive a heavy transport vehicle.

"When these authorities were contacted,the licence was also found to be issued in the name of one Sunil Saxena for motorcycles only. The Bulandshahar authority never endorsed it for driving HTVs," said a source.
The most interesting was the case of constable Sanjeet Kumar , who challenged the cancellation of his candidature after his fake licence was detected. A resident of Jhajjar (Haryana ), Sanjeet submitted a licence issued from Imphal (Manipur).

"His licence was actually issued in the name of Geetabali Devi for LMVs and two-wheelers. The matter was examined and legal action was initiated againsthim ," said the source.